The fact that EverQuest is still going in 2026, 27 years since it launched on March 16, 1999, is extraordinary. Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO arrived five years before World of Warcraft and, like its arch-rival, is still enjoyed today. That’s in large part thanks to continual development and regular expansions, and the game’s miraculous survival after Sony sold the whole of SOE to a private equity firm, whereupon the division was renamed Daybreak Game Company. But now (thanks Gematsu), in news that has made this middle-aged man happy, the original version of EverQuest is being re-imagined and will return as EverQuest Legends.
Around 1999, you had to pick one. You were either with the granddaddy of them all, 1997’s Ultima Online, or you were with EverQuest, and if you claimed to love both equally you were some sort of untrustworthy ne’er-do-well. I’m not sure how I arbitrarily picked EverQuest—I suspect it might have been the result of an assignment by PC Gamer—and thus immediately decided that the (completely incredible) Ultima Online wasn’t for me. Who wanted to play an MMO where you could just spend all day running a shop?! (Gosh that sounds nice.)
EverQuest felt more…traditional to me, I guess. Far more D&D adjacent, not least because it was so heavily inspired by all the MUDs that had paved the roads down which graphical MMOs could travel, and so a lot more like a BioWare game transplanted into a shared living world. It wouldn’t be until 2004’s City of Heroes that I would find the MMO that felt entirely made for me, but EverQuest comes second. But honestly, nearly 30 years—and hundreds of RPGs and MMOs—later, I can barely remember a thing about it. It lives in my head far more as a vibe, and one for which I immediately felt a strong wave of nostalgia on seeing the news of its revival. And even more-so on learning that it’s being aimed at people who want to play MMOs primarily solo. Hello!
EverQuest Legends‘ site explains that the original game has been “redesigned from the ground up to appeal to players who enjoy playing their games solo and/or casually.” So this isn’t a World of Warcraft Classic situation, where the original game was restored as it was at launch, but rather a reinvention based on the 1999 original, refocused for solo play, and with multi-class characters designed to feel powerful. Apparently we’ll be able to roll a rogue/paladin/wizard, and other three-class combinations, in the original version of Norrath, in the game’s original art style, along with original “graphics, zones, spell effects, loot, and music.” Which sounds bonkers, and I’m really intrigued.
I feel like this could piss off a lot of old-school players who might have hoped for a more faithful reincarnation, but this project sounds like it was created just for me. It’s still going to be possible to play in four-person groups, and take part in eight-person raids, but I’ve always loved to solo through these worlds, and this time it’s going to be designed for me to more easily do so.
Or it could be a colossal mess. Who knows! I’ve signed up for the beta to find out, and you can do so as well on the official site, although there’s no clue yet when that might start.
Now someone somehow get the rights to City of Heroes and do the same for that bloody marvelous game.
